Arizona Z Car brakes are awesome

[crapforum]

I just replaced my stock front brakes with the Arizona Z car kit, the standard one not the 6 piston one. Wanted to just say the fit is great, the look is great, and most importantly the stopping power is great. I swapped in a Wilwood 1" master while I was at it, not sure what people are talking about having hard pedals and wanting bigger brake boosters or anything. The brakes pedal feels great with this combo and the stock 240z booster. Took about a day driving in for everything to brake in after initial install, but damn these things lock the front tires so easily! To those who say stock Z brakes are fine, no, just no, try doing a 100mph to 0 zero stop and tell me they are fine. Now to sort out my rear end so I can upgrade those drums.

Had to pick up some new wheels too to fit the brakes, running rota rb 16x7 +4 with 225-50-16s. Had passenger side barely rubbing the lower front fender at certain steering angles, some light massaging cleared that up.

 

[JMortensen]

SMH...

[74_5.0L_Z]

You cannot use the full potential of bigger front brakes until you have also added appropriately sized rear brakes.  A balanced set-up is key to maximum braking performance.

 

Right now, with the upgraded front and stock rear, the front brakes will lock easily and the rear are doing not much of anything.  I found myself in the same predicament years ago when I upgraded the front brakes before the rear.

The brakes felt better than stock but were severely limited by the stock rears. 

 

I finally decided that upgrading the rears to match the front was mandatory after trying to stop on a wet slippery bridge.  The front locked super easy and the rear did nothing.  I nearly hit the car in front of me before getting stopped.  An unbalanced brake set-up is dangerous to drive in wet conditions.

 

If you have four 1.75 " pistons (per caliper) in the front, then you will need four 1.375 pistons (per caliper)  in the rear and a proportioning valve in the rear brake circuit to get good brake balance.

[JMortensen]

Dan is right, and I had the same experience. Had a Toy 4x4 setup in front and 280ZX in rear and did a driving school. One of the things they did was to experience skidding and loss of control, so they had sprinklers on a large section of asphalt and had us go through and stomp the brakes. Was told afterwards that my rears weren't locking up despite the water. Opened my adjustable valve all the way, still wouldn't lock rears. Finally downsized my front calipers back to stock, braking performance improved tremendously.

 

A balanced huge brake system will have the advantage of being able to stop the car over and over without overheating. A balanced stock brake system will stop a lot faster than your mismatched setup.

[RebekahsZ]

With 10" slicks in back and 4.5" front runners, I had my rear bias adjusted to allow as much rear braking as possible this weekend at the 1/2-mile. And, I was using my hydraulic handbrake on the rears as well. It's nice to be able to put the braking power where the traction is. I have AZC all the way around.

[madkaw]

Love my AZC system too!

[crapforum]

I was going to get the rear AZC setup to match but like I said, need to swap my rearend first (diff). As soon as the right 8.8 pops up in the junkyard I am grabbing it and fabbing some mounts. Will almost certainly use a hub from some other vehicle, so any of these kits that were meant for the rear for a Z car will not work. Believe me I know all about brake bias, had a Camaro that the exhaust come loose, beat the rear brake line that goes over the axle and puncture it. Found this out when it was a rainy day... cost me a new wheel in the end.